Transaction Processing
In a Dynamic IT environment, the back-end systems that are used to process transactions and store data
must provide the availability, performance, and security demanded by the organization. This document
will explain how to achieve a Dynamic level of availability, scalability, and security for your processing
servers as dictated by business requirements.
Capability: Transaction Processing
Applies to: Microsoft BizTalk, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Azure, Internet
Information Services
Attributes: High Availability, Management, Performance, Security
Author: Allan Hirt
Published: December 2010
Disclaimer
This document is provided “as-is.” Information and views expressed in this document, including URL and
other Internet Web site references, may change without notice. You bear the risk of using it.
Some examples depicted herein are provided for illustration only and are fictitious. No real association
or connection is intended or should be inferred.
This document does not provide you with any legal rights to any intellectual property in any Microsoft
product. You may copy and use this document for your internal, reference purposes.
© 2010 Microsoft. All rights reserved.
ii
Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1
Transaction Processing ............................................................................................................................. 1
Steps to a Dynamic Environment .............................................................................................................. 2
Plan Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions .......................................................................... 2
Deploy Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions ..................................................................... 7
Manage Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions.................................................................. 11
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 17
iii
Introduction
Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization (IO) is based on three information technology (IT) models: Core
IO, Application Platform Optimization, and Business Productivity IO. Each of these models contains four
levels of process maturity and capability classifications as logical groupings of requirements for each
level of maturity. Application Platform Optimization focuses on aligning applications with core business
processes, assessing the workload performance of existing business-critical applications, and prioritizing
the application and infrastructure investments that can drive the greatest return for businesses.
Maturity levels in the Application Platform optimization model are Basic, Standardized, Advanced, and
Dynamic. This guide contains checklists to help move from the Advanced level to the Dynamic level for
the Transaction Processing capability in the Application Platform Optimization model. See Application
Platform Optimization at http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/solutions/application-platformoptimization/default.aspx for more information about Application Platform Optimization.
Transaction Processing
IT systems must meet the uptime, performance, and security needs demanded by the business. The only
way to achieve that is to plan, deploy, and manage these systems correctly—not just by putting the right
technologies in place, but also the right people and processes. In contrast to implementing a platform or
technology on its own with no links to anything else, each application may support only certain
technologies or features, so any choices made would be specific to what is ultimately deployed.
Application owners and developers must take that into account from the start, as IT groups cannot
always compensate for issues that are thrust upon them via application decisions. The whole IT
ecosystem—including the applications chosen—must meet your company’s standards.
In a Standardized environment, there may be little attention to availability, scalability, and
comprehensive security; the goal is often to just get up and running. Rationalized environments
acknowledge availability, security, and performance needs related to applications in more detail, but the
processes can often be manual or ad hoc; often advanced solutions to support events (such as site
failures) are not taken into account. A Dynamic IT environment should automate most of the common
tasks to ensure availability, security, and performance for an application, and take into account offpremise solutions where applicable.
Steps to a Dynamic Environment
Figure 1. Steps for deploying a Dynamic, highly available, scalable, and secure application solution
This document explains the steps organizations can take to plan, deploy, and administer highly available
and scalable systems for applications. Figure 1 illustrates steps involved in achieving these goals; the
remaining sections will provide the specific tasks necessary for each step.
Plan Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions
Figure 2. Plan available, scalable, and secure application solutions
This step will guide you through the pre-deployment planning tasks for systems to support the
availability, performance, and security needs of the applications. These tasks, along with most others in
this document, are based upon those in the Plan and Operate phases of Microsoft Operations
Framework (MOF). If you have not had prior experience with MOF, it is important to familiarize yourself
with its concepts.
Table 1 lists the inputs (prerequisites or necessary information) for completing this step and the
outcomes (or deliverables) of its completion.
Table 1. Plan Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions: Inputs and Outcomes
Category
Description
Inputs


2
MOF experience: Understanding iterative processes based on MOF to properly
plan, implement, and operate your environments is crucial to any Dynamic IT
environment.
Business requirements: You cannot implement any solutions unless you
understand the availability and performance requirements for each system. Those
Category
Description
start at the business level.
Outcomes



Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and other related agreements: Based on the
business needs and the capabilities of your IT environment, you can then devise
the formal availability and performance metrics that the deployments will need to
meet.
Capacity planning information: For Dynamic IT, you must have the proper
information to scale the systems so that they can meet the long term needs of the
business.
Technical requirements: To perform the implementation, you must have all the
availability and other technical requirements in place.
Table 2 explains the pre-deployment tasks for systems that will be used for an application solution. After
completing this step, you will be ready to deploy the servers that will perform the application work (see
Figure 2).
Table 2. Plan Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions
Task
Description
Reference
Understand
the basics of
high
 availability.
Understand fundamental concepts such as
uptime, service level agreements (SLAs),
recovery point objectives (RPOs), recovery time
objectives (RTOs), and how to calculate
availability. Once you understand them, make
sure they are standardized and applied in the
same way across your organization.
Windows Server 2008 High
Availability Program
whitepaper
Define
availability
requirements
and put
formal
agreements in
 place.
No technology can be chosen, planned for,
deployed, or administered unless the
requirements are fully documented and
understood by everyone. All requirements start
from the business, not IT, and are rationalized
by IT.
Documents found in MOF Job
Aids – Plan.zip:
SLAs should be put in place along with other
formalized agreements, such as the operations
expectations and recovery objectives. Anything
that needs to be defined should be done at this
stage of pre-deployment.

Agreements may need to be put in place
3
Microsoft High Availability
Overview White Paper


MOF Job Aid – Operating
Level Agreement.doc
MOF Job Aid – Operations
Level Agreement.doc
MOF Job Aid – Service
Level Agreement
Template.doc
MOF Job Aid – Operations and
Services Description
Template.doc in MOF Job Aids –
Task
Determine
risks
associated
with the
 deployment.
Description
Reference
between multiple parties (IT and the application
owner, IT and the business, IT and the DBAs, and
so on) to ensure the availability is met at all
levels and proper expectations are set.
Operate.zip
Risk is a key factor in determining the
architecture for an availability solution.
Availability is based on the concept that risk is
mitigated to increase uptime.
“MOF Job Aid – Risk Template
Tool.xls” in MOF Job Aids –
Manage.zip, available for
download at
http://www.microsoft.com/do
wnloads/en/details.aspx?Famil
yId=457ED61D-27B8-49D1BACAB175E8F54C0C&displaylang=en
All ZIP files can be downloaded
at
http://www.microsoft.com/do
wnloads/en/details.aspx?Famil
yId=457ED61D-27B8-49D1BACAB175E8F54C0C&displaylang=en
Determine a
How much can be spent (including the licensing
budget for the of all software-based components) must be
determined early on. A mission-critical, Dynamic
solution.
IT environment cannot afford to under- or
overspend, as that may lead to capacity issues at

a later point. The budget may need to be
adjusted based on the documented
requirements, or the requirements may need to
be adjusted if the budget will not support them.
Microsoft Operations
Framework
Understand
and
determine the
right
availability
 technologies
based on
application
support.
BizTalk:
To deploy the availability architecture, you must
understand what availability technologies and
methods each application platform supports.
Planning for High Availability
Performance and Capacity
Planning
SharePoint:
Plan for Availability
SQL Server:
4
Task
Description
Reference
High Availability Solutions
Overview
Understand
the security
requirements
for the
application
platform.
To secure each application platform, you must
understand what options are available to you
and what is important to secure.
BizTalk:
Security and Protection
Internet Information Services:
IIS 7 Security Improvements

SharePoint Server:
Plan Site and Content Security
SQL Server:
Security Overview (Database
Engine)
Understand
the
performance
 requirements
for the
application
platform.
To ensure that each layer scales and performs to
its best abilities, you must understand what
options are available to you.
Scaling Strategies for ASP.NET
Applications
Configure a
test and/or

staging
environment.
A test environment that is set up to support and
mimic the eventual production environment is a
key success factor.
Microsoft Operations
Framework
For IT, nothing is more important during the
planning phase than properly testing the
application under the proposed workload and
then using the numbers captured as part of a
capacity planning exercise to purchase the right
hardware, or to see if current hardware or
solutions (such as virtualization) can be
leveraged. A Dynamic IT environment will have
automated testing for the required workloads,
which should represent the peak that is
Testing the Application (Visual
Studio Test Manager)
Perform
testing and
capacity
planning.

5
Capacity Management for
Share Point 2010
BizTalk 2009 Benchmark and
Assessment Questions
Task
Description
Reference
anticipated for the length the systems will be in
place.
Ensure that
change
control is

implemented
in your
environment.
All mission-critical environments require a
formal change control process to ensure that all
work is tracked.
Purchase
support
agreements.
A crucial component of any mission-critical
deployment is the purchase of support
agreements from all hardware and software
vendors that meet the availability requirements.
While these may be costly, in a server- (or site-)
down situation, you will not be able to meet
your goals with support agreements that exceed
the agreed-upon SLAs.
Hire the right
people and
put them in
the right
roles.
Having the right people in the right place at the
right time means more than just having
someone on call or on a schedule. If a system
goes down, the right person should be doing the
work to bring it up, whether that person is on
site or on call (perhaps in a accessing the system
remotely). For example, you should never have
your most junior administrator as the only
available staff at a crucial time for the business.
Always ensure that someone who is more senior
is available, and use a tiered system to ensure
that those who are working the most will not
become overtaxed.
Qualify any
hosting or
cloud vendor
 if applicable.
Many IT organizations are outsourcing their IT
environments or moving to the cloud. If you are
either considering these moves or are in the
process, make sure that you scrutinize the
vendor carefully. For example, if a server goes
down, what is their response time? Can you get
access to their data center 24/7 should you need
to go onsite? Even if your organization does not


6
Microsoft Operations
Framework
Task
Description
Reference
own certain servers, you must take steps to
ensure their availability.
Deploy Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions
Figure 3. Deploy available, scalable, and secure application solutions
Once the planning tasks are complete, you can implement the application platform architecture. The
tasks in this step account for the various popular application servers Microsoft produces.
Table 3 lists the inputs (prerequisites or necessary information) for completing this step and the
outcomes (or deliverables) of its completion.
Table 3. Deploy Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions: Inputs and Outcomes
Category
Description
Inputs



Outcomes

Capacity planning information: For Dynamic IT, you must have the proper
information to scale the systems so that they can meet the long-term needs of the
business.
Technical requirements: To perform the implementation, you must have all the
availability and other technical requirements to properly put things in place.
Required software and settings: To standardize how each server will ultimately
look and feel, a Dynamic IT environment must devise a list of what the server build
should have.
Application Platform Deployed: The components used for the application platform
from an infrastructure perspective will be deployed.
Table 4 documents the key tasks involved in deploying the application platform infrastructure. After
completing this set of tasks, your application infrastructure will be deployed.
7
Table 4. Deploy Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions
Task
Description
Reference
Configure the
hardware or virtual
machines.
Ensure that the underlying hardware or
virtual machines are configured properly, and
that their architecture is adequate for
performance. Remember that for an
application platform, I/O performance may
matter, so implementing your disk subsystem
will matter.
BizTalk:
BizTalk virtualization support
policy
BizTalk Server 2009 Hyper-V
Guide
SQL Server:
SQL Server virtualization
support policy
Planning, Implementing, and
Supporting SQL Server
Virtualization with Windows
Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V
Live Migration

SharePoint:
SharePoint virtualization
support policy
SharePoint 2010
Virtualization Notes
Virtualization for SharePoint
2010
Automate and
standardize base

Windows
deployments.
Deploy a failover
cluster (optional).

8
Good application deployments start with a
solid Windows build. Builds that are
standardized will ensure a consistent
experience and increase reliability.
“Automate and Standardize
Base Windows Deployments”
in the Mission Critical
document High Availability
Depending on both your requirements and
what the application platform supports, you
may need to configure a Windows failover
cluster as part of the implementation.
“Deploy a Failover Cluster” in
the Mission Critical document
High Availability
Improving Fault Tolerance in
BizTalk Server by Using a
Windows Server Cluster
Task
Description
Reference
Planning, Implementing and
Supporting SQL Server
Virtualization with Windows
Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and
Live Migration
Deploy a network
load balancing
 cluster (optional).
Deploy application
platforms
(optional).
Depending on both your requirements and
what the application platform supports, you
may need to configure a Network Load
Balancing cluster as part of the
implementation.
“Deploy a Network Load
Balancing Cluster” in the
mission critical document
High Availability
Each major application has its own method of
installation. Some are partially referenced
above with the clustering and virtualization
links.
BizTalk:
IIS Server (Web Farm)
Deployment
SharePoint:
Deployment

Internet Information
Services:
Setting up a Server Farm with
the Web Farm Framework
2.0 Beta for IIS 7
Consolidate SQL
Server workloads.
As part of the deployment and optimization
process, you may want to consolidate your
workloads to save money and resources.

SQL Server Consolidation
Guidance
Consolidation Using SQL
Server 2008
Consolidation of BizTalk
Server Databases
Implement specific
features for
availability or

disaster recovery.
In addition to building on top of a Windowsbased cluster (which is generally as a part of
installation), other methods can be used to
make the application platforms (or parts
thereof) available.
SQL Server:
Database Mirroring
Log Shipping
SQL Server Replication
9
Task
Description
Reference
High Availability:
Interoperability and
Coexistence
BizTalk:
Clustering the BizTalk Server
Databases
Scaling Out the BizTalk Server
Databases
Disaster Recovery
SharePoint:
Plan for disaster recovery:
hot standby farms
Using Database Mirroring
with Office SharePoint Server
and Windows SharePoint
Services
Availability configuration
Be Prepared: A Guide to
SharePoint Disaster
Prevention and Recovery
Step-by-Step SharePoint
DisasterRecovery
(WindowsITPro magazine
article)
Synchronize
databases with SQL
Azure (optional).

If you want to synchronize your SQL Server
databases to create business continuity in the
cloud using SQL Azure, you can take
advantage of the methods linked in the
column to the right.
Introduction to Sync
Framework Database
Synchronization
SQL Azure Data Sync
SQL Server to SQL Azure
Synchronization using Sync
10
Task
Description
Reference
Framework
How to Sync Large SQL Server
Databases to SQL Azure
Ensure a secure
deployment.
As part of overall deployment, the back-end
application server platforms must be secured
according to the guidelines set by the
vendors.
SQL Server:
Secure Deployment
Security Overview for
Database Administrators
BizTalk:

Securing Your Deployment of
BizTalk Server 2010
Internet Information
Services:
Configuring Security
SharePoint:
Security and Authentication
for SharePoint 2010
Manage Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions
Figure 4. Manage available, scalable, and secure application solutions
You must remain vigilant to maintain the availability, performance, and security of your systems. Some
tasks only need to occur occasionally, while others may need constant care and feeding.
11
Table 5 lists the inputs (prerequisites or necessary information) for completing this step and the
outcomes (or deliverables) of its completion.
Table 5. Manage Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions: Inputs and Outcomes
Category
Description
Inputs




Outcomes

SLAs and other related requirements: As with deployment, you need the
availability, performance, and security-related requirements to be able to put the
proper administration in place to maintain systems on a day-to-day basis.
Skill set evaluation: Additionally, you must understand the skills of the
administrators working in your environment to put the proper administration in
place. Putting in technologies and solutions that cannot be maintained by your
administrators can do more harm than good.
Process evaluation: Know where the lines of delineation are in your IT group (for
example, what constitutes a DBA task versus one for a security administrator).
Communication and vendor relationships: A core part of any administration is
smooth communication—both internally and with any vendor whose products are
represented in the application solution stack.
Systems properly administered: Systems will have the right administration in
place to maintain their performance, availability, and security.
Table 6 documents the administration tasks that ensure availability. After completing this step, you will
administer servers to maintain their availability (see Figure 6).
Table 6. Manage Available, Scalable, and Secure Application Solutions
Task
Description
Administer systems
remotely.
One way to minimize risk to your servers is to
administer them remotely with the proper tools
(for example, by using SQL Server Management
Studio to administer SQL Server databases). If
you do this, there is a much smaller chance of
someone doing the wrong thing accidentally,
such as shutting down the server instead of
logging off from a remote session. If you do need
to be on the server to perform tasks, use a
remote tool such as Remote Desktop
Connection.
Remote Desktop Services
Document
everything and
Documentation is an important tool for
availability. It is crucial to have not only the
Asset Intelligence in
Configuration Manager


12
Reference
Task
Description
Reference
keep the
documentation
updated.
required task steps documented (in the event
anyone would need to execute them) but also
contact information, application owner
information, and everything in between. In the
event of an outage, this information will be
invaluable. However, if the information is not
kept up to date, the problem could be
compounded.
Microsoft Assessment
and Planning Toolkit
Test availability
and/or disaster
plans.
You must devise end-to-end plans for availability
and/or disaster recovery must which incorporate
all aspects of the systems (applications,
Windows, SQL Server, and so on).
Documents:

Plans are only helpful if they are tested and
executed. In the event that you actually have an
outage, it is important to know you have a
working availability plan and know how long it
takes to execute.
Implement
monitoring for
performance and
availability.

 Audit for security
events and
13



MOF Job Aid – Test
Cases Workbook.doc
MOF Job Aid – Test
Plan.doc
MOF Job Aid – Test
Specification.doc
in MOF Job Aids –
Deliver.zip, found here
All servers in an IT environment will require
monitoring. With the proper monitoring,
problems of all sorts can be detected proactively,
whether they are related to availability,
performance, or another factor. Items related to
uptime, health, and performance are important
for system reliability; keep in mind that
something as simple as a performance problem
can lead to an availability problem. It is also
important to configure a monitoring solution so
that you can be proactive and address problems
before they cause outages. Information gathered
during monitoring should also be stored for a
period of time and archived. This historical
information will help during troubleshooting, and
will also assist with capacity planning during an
upgrade.
“Checklist: Monitoring
BizTalk Server with
Operations Manager
2007” in the BizTalk
Server 2009 Operations
Guide
Maintaining security is a continual process. You
must check for violations not only of your basic
Run the Microsoft
Baseline Security
Monitoring BizTalk Server
SharePoint:
Health Monitoring
Task
Description
Reference
compliance.
security rules and regulations, but also
configuration changes which would put your
applications at risk.
Analyzer periodically
SharePoint:
Item-Level Auditing with
SharePoint Server 2007
SQL Server:
Auditing (Database
Engine)
Administering Servers by
Using Policy-Based
Management
Implement a
backup and restore
strategy.

The first administrative task any IT administrator
must do to ensure availability is to devise a
backup and restore strategy. In the event of a
catastrophic problem, the only thing you may
have at your disposal is a backup of the missioncritical system or data to be restored.
BizTalk:
BizTalk backup tool
Backing Up and Restoring
BizTalk Server
SharePoint:
Backup and recovery
planning
Backup and recovery
Troubleshoot
performance
problems.
As systems are used over time, they may
experience some performance degradation. It
might be caused either by the usage of the
application, or by other factors, such as
hardware or networking. These incidents must
be handled as they occur. In a Dynamic IT
environment, they should ideally be
automatically detected and recurring common
issues should be remediated for.
SQL Azure:
Troubleshooting and
Optimizing Queries with
SQL Azure whitepaper
SQL Server:
Troubleshooting
Performance Problems in
SQL Server 2008
whitepaper
BizTalk:
14
Task
Description
Reference
BizTalk Server 2009
Performance
Optimization Guide
SharePoint:
Improving SharePoint
Performance
SharePoint Performance
Tuning References
Perform normal
operations.
Outside the specific tasks listed here, there are
some general tasks specific to each platform that
IT must perform.
SharePoint:
Operations for
SharePoint Server 2010
Database Maintenance
for Microsoft SharePoint
Products and
Technologies
BizTalk:
BizTalk Server 2009
Operations Guide
Test and apply
updates
periodically.

At one point or another, various components will
require a patch or some sort of update. For
example, Microsoft releases security updates on
the second Tuesday of every month; they are
documented in corresponding security bulletins
at the Microsoft Security Center. Updates may be
deployed as part of a scheduled outage, or if a
system is down, a patch may be required to get it
back up and running. Effective management of
server updates is crucial to server availability;
introducing a change—especially one that is not
tested—can affect both performance and
reliability.
Updates such as service packs for Microsoft
products do have an expiration date, so you
15
See the Patch and
Update Process
documentation in the
Mission Critical
document set.
Microsoft Support
Lifecycle website
Task
Description
Reference
should always plan to test and implement a
newer version as soon as is reasonable after its
release.
Periodically refresh
servers and major
versions.

All product versions, including those from
Microsoft, have a lifecycle determined by their
manufacturer. If servers are left running older
versions, they become unsupported. Missioncritical systems should have full support to
ensure that in the event of a problem, the
vendor’s support organization can effectively
handle a case.
Most companies that deploy solutions have a
hardware lifecycle for the equipment purchased,
so version replacements or upgrades should be
considered in the prescribed timeframes to
minimize disruption and increase uptime.
16
Microsoft Support
Lifecycle website
Conclusion
While front-end applications are the tools end users work with daily, it is the back end systems in any
organization that do the most demanding work. These systems must provide the reliability and
performance required by the business. If they do not, the business may not be operating optimally. To
ensure high availability, scalability, and security for the application platforms, a Dynamic IT environment
must take the steps outlined in this document.
For additional information, see the following resources:

















17
SharePoint 2010 documentation: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428287.aspx
BizTalk 2010 documentation: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee317850(BTS.10).aspx
SQL Server 2008 R2 documentation: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/bb418432(SQL.10).aspx
SQL Azure documentation: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee336279.aspx
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Performance Optimization Guide: http://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/ee377064(v=BTS.10).aspx
SQL Server 2005 failover clustering:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=818234dc-a17b-4f09-b282c6830fead499&DisplayLang=en
SQL Server 2008 failover clustering: http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/9/D/69D1FEA75B42-437A-B3BA-A4AD13E34EF6/SQLServer2008FailoverCluster.docx
High Availability with SQL Server 2008 R2: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/ff658546(SQL.100).aspx
How to Implement Kerberos Constrained Delegation with SQL Server 2008:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee191523(SQL.100).aspx
Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2008: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/dd672789(SQL.100).aspx
Partitioned Tables and Index Strategies Using SQL Server 2008: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/dd578580(SQL.100).aspx
Plan Caching in SQL Server 2008: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/ee343986(SQL.100).aspx
Disk Partition Alignment Best Practices for SQL Server: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/dd758814(SQL.100).aspx
SQL Server 2005 Waits and Queues: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc966413.aspx
SQL Server Customer Advisory Team website: http://sqlcat.com/
Scaling out with SQL Azure:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=4931D76F-0E21-44A7-8699852EEC6EE029
Geo-Replication Performance Gains with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Running on Windows Server
2008: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd263442(SQL.100).aspx